The Opera
by Snazzy2
Summary: Mindy's fictional affair with Cliff takes on a life of its own.
1. Chapter 1

Wow! She was tonguing Cliff in the courtyard. Mindy couldn't wait to tell Danny her "sex trap" had succeeded.

She looked up at Cliff and smiled. And then she saw him. Or she thought she saw him. Danny. Standing by the window looking at them with a bleak expression on his face.

She turned her head to look up, but Danny was gone. If he'd ever been there in the first place. Maybe he was just a boob-wine ghost. Strange. She didn't remember hallucinating the last time she'd drunk two bottles of wine.

Cliff was smiling back at her now, "So, ummm, how about dinner tomorrow night? You know, a date?"

"Yes," she said, "that would be nice."

Wait, Cliff was still staring at her expectantly. Maybe she forgot to say those words out loud. "Yes, Cliff, that would be great."

They kissed a few more times, and then Cliff left, as quietly as he'd come. She realized it was probably the right thing to do - she'd had her boob-wine, he'd just barely broken up with Heather, they both had to work tomorrow. Yeah, a real date was the way to go.

She walked back inside to find the party winding down. The taxidermists seemed to have disappeared - thank goodness. Morgan and Tamra were beginning to take down some decorations. She found Danny in the break-room organizing the leftovers.

"Danny!"

"Mindy."

"It worked!"

"What?"

Okay, he had clearly seen her kissing Cliff. Was he really playing dumb?

"It worked!" Still nothing. "Cliff! The sex trap! He kissed me!"

"Huh. It worked." Did he look surprised. Maybe? She thought so. Okay, maybe that was a boob-wine ghost she'd seen.

The next day, Friday, was a quiet one at the office. Mindy shuffled in late - okay, five minutes late was pretty good going considering how her head was feeling that morning.

"It's 9:15, Mindy," Danny said. Okay, maybe she was fifteen minutes late, but who's counting?

All day long she watched Danny for a sign of - something. But he was unshakably normal. Completely and utterly normal. He teased her. He acted all superior (as if) while they consulted on a difficult case.

And why shouldn't he be normal? He was her friend. Her friend should be happy for her. Normal.

But it was driving her crazy. She didn't want him to be normal. She wanted him to be sad. Jealous. Something. Wait, where was that coming from?

But he seemed happy for her. And that made her so so sad.

She and Cliff had agreed to meet after work - how convenient was it that her new boyfriend worked in the same building as her? She stayed a little late, then changed in her office and headed out into the dark reception area. Danny was just leaving, a few steps ahead of her. "Hey, Danny, have a nice weekend!"

"You too." He kept walking, never even turning to acknowledge her. "Wear the other one."

"What are you talking about?"

"Wear the other dress."

"You haven't even looked at me. You don't know what I'm wearing."

He turned then, gave her a quick once over and said, "Yup, that's what I figured. Wear the other one."

"Danny!" she sputtered to his departing back.

She went back into her office and changed. Into the black dress she'd brought as a "back-up," in case, you know, the shiny one was too much.

Dinner with Cliff was nice. Lovely even. Lovely and nice. But wow, how had she never noticed that Cliff's eyes were really close together? And maybe it was the light, but he suddenly looked really old.

Damnit, Danny, get out of my head.

Mindy and Cliff chatted, but there was no sparkle. Maybe all the fun was wanting each other when they couldn't have each other, and arguing over, you know, sexy topics like potential slip and fall cases. Apparently that didn't translate well to dinner conversation when there was nothing left to fight about.

Cliff walked her home, gave her a quick peck on the cheek, and that was that. Yeah, he clearly wasn't feeling it either. Oh, well.

* * *

"9:05, Dr. Lahiri."

"What are you talking about? I'm right on time."

"No," Morgan chimed in, "Tamra's phone clearly says 9:05."

She walked into her office and shut the door. Yep. Danny was still being normal. Not jealous. Maybe he thought her date with Cliff had flopped. Well, okay, it had, but how did he know that? She could date. She was good at dating. Why would he just assume it would fall apart? Ha! She'd show him.

She walked into Danny's office. "So how was your weekend?" she asked sweetly.

"Umm, Mindy, some of us have work to do."

"Whatever, so, Springsteen, blah blah blah?"

"What?"

"Never mind. Don't you want to know about my date with Cliff?"

"Not really." Ah-ha! He was jealous. There it was. "But you're going to tell me, aren't you?" He looked up and smiled. Okay, maybe he wasn't jealous.

"Well." Maybe she should have thought this out a little before she came in here. "Well, we had this great sushi dinner" (that was so boring) "and then he walked me home and kissed me" (on the cheek). "It was very romantic," she added. Wow, was that really the best she could come up with?

"That's nice."

"Nice, Danny? Nice is your grandmother's floral curtains. It wasn't nice! It rocked my world! It was Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks! No, Billy Crystal!"

"Okay." He looked at her. She was so confused. Why was he being so normal?

* * *

After that, things might have spun a little out of control.

"So, Danny, Cliff and I had an amazing date this weekend. He made me pancakes for breakfast and we spent all day together!" "Okay. That's nice." He winked at her. Winked? This was funny to him?

"So, Danny, Cliff and I are going to the Hamptons this weekend. His friends have a place there and they're not using it" (because it's not exactly Hamptons weather, dummy), "so it's just us and the hot tub all weekend."

"Okay." Still nothing.

"Hey Danny, Cliff and I are going to the Met tonight."

"What?"

Okay, that got a response. "The opera, Danny. You know, fat people singing."

"Yes, Mindy, I know what the opera is. You're going to the opera?"

Perhaps that was too much. Skepticism was not the reaction she was looking for. "Well, you know, it's like Mamma Mia, but more. And louder." Was it louder? "So, it's going to be great."

"Okay."

"Cliff's expanding my horizons." She tried to make that sound dirty. He just looked confused. This was not working.

He was driving her crazy. He was supposed to be the one who kissed her in the snow after the Christmas party. Sure, okay, maybe that hadn't been her original plan, but duh, once she thought about it, it was really the only plan that made any sense. He was her friend. Her good friend. And a handsome jerk. Emphasis on handsome. And her co-worker. And so totally off-limits that she had repressed all thoughts of going there. Despite his handsome jerkiness. Jerky handsomeness. Whatever. The point is, when he'd looked at her like that after his dance, she knew. She knew it was pointless to pretend there was nothing there. There was definitely something there. And she definitely wanted there to be something there.

But she was beginning to think she'd imagined it all. And she was not going to ruin the best relationship she'd ever had with a guy - okay, so it was a platonic relationship, but still her best ever - by declaring her love (okay, slow down, who's talking about love here?) and having him laugh in her face. He would just lord it over her forever.

And she'd be sad.

* * *

After Danny spent another Saturday morning alone at the office - why was everyone else such a slacker? - he headed home for lunch. As he stepped into the elevator, the couple locked in a passionate embrace tactfully stepped apart. Danny turned to give them an awkward but polite head nod.

"Hey, Danny, this is L-" Danny punched Cliff before Cliff could finish introducing his companion.

"What the hell, man?"

"What are you doing? Cheating on Mindy? You're disgusting! And dumb. Wow, I thought you were better than those other creeps she's dated."

Cliff stared at him from the elevator floor, rubbing his - apparently not broken - jaw. "What are you talking about? Who's cheating on Mindy?"

"You, asshole!"

Cliff stood up. "We went on one pathetic little date six weeks ago. I've barely seen her since. I mean, I've seen her in the elevator. And she hasn't, by the way, assaulted me, unlike some people, but um, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh. Wow. Sorry, man. Uh, nice to meet you, L-" Danny put out his hand to shake hers, but she just gave him a disgusted look as she grabbed Cliff's arm and walked out of the elevator with Cliff.


	2. Chapter 2

"Hey, Danny."

"Yeah, Min."

"So, I know it's kind of fast, but Cliff and I are talking about moving in together."

"Okay."

He didn't look up from his desk, but he was smiling. Wait, no, this was not normal. He was smiling too much. He looked happy (happy?) about this. Too happy. And this wasn't his "that's nice, Mindy" smile. No, this was different. Okay, something was up. He didn't seem jealous, though. Wait, was he dating someone?

"So, how was your weekend, Danny?"

"Since when are you interested in my weekend?"

"Umm, always. I mean, you always complain that I'm way too interested in your love life."

Okay, something was definitely up. He was still smiling. Really really hard. He was definitely dating someone.

"Oh, uhh, I think I just heard my 2:30 come in. I'd better go take a look at her chart."

She walked out.

"Min?"

"Yeah?" She stopped at the door.

"I had a great weekend," he said, still smiling.

"Oh."

* * *

Tuesday morning, Jeremy and Betsy were chatting as Mindy walked in. As Betsy handed Mindy her charts, Betsy asked, "How's Cliff doing? How was your date last night? Cliff is sooo handsome, Dr. L."

Jeremy glanced up at Betsy sharply. What was that about?

Never mind. Focus. What had she and Cliff had planned for last night? Mindy couldn't remember. Betsy was still looking at her expectantly and she noticed that Danny had suddenly materialized in his doorway. How long had he been standing there? And how much wine had she had last night? Was she hallucinating Daniel Castellano again?

"Dr. L.?" Betsy asked.

"Oh, ummm, Cliff had to cancel. Stomach flu. Vomiting. You know. Yuck." She rushed into her office and closed the door.

Yeah, she'd had a little too much to drink last night. What else were you supposed to do when your fictional boyfriend had the stomach flu and your non-fictional non-boyfriend wasn't at all jealous of your fictional boyfriend? Obviously that called for a bottle (or so) of wine. Because really, she couldn't take much more of Danny's happiness.

Danny knocked on her door. "Uh, Min? Are you feeling okay? Not coming down with Cliff's stomach flu, are you?" Even with that concerned look on his face, he couldn't hide the sparkle in his eyes.

"No, I'm fine. I, uh, -"

"Is everything okay with Cliff? You seem sad."

"And you seem bizarrely happy, you freak! Stop gloating and leave me alone!"

"Whoa, Mindy, calm down. I'm not gloating. I'm -" He stopped. He turned to walk out, but stopped at the door. "When are you going to tell me the truth, Min?" he asked quietly.

She looked at him. He just stared back at her. Ummm, what was he talking about?

"Danny, what are you talking about?"

"When are you going to tell me the truth?" he repeated.

How did he know about Cliff? She looked down at her desk. "Ummm." Wow, she'd never noticed how the wood grain on her desk had all these interesting patterns. That swirly bit right in front of her kind of looked like an eye. Damnit, it kind of looked like one of Danny's eyes.

She looked up. Yup, he and his eyes were still there. He stood there looking at her. And this time he was definitely inscrutable. Not happy or smug. Still not jealous. But not normal, either. There was finally something else going on. She broke eye contact. Back to the fascinating wood grain.

After a few seconds, she looked up again. Whoops. That was a mistake.

"Ummm."

"Yeah?" He looked at her expectantly.

"Cliff and I broke up."

"Okay." He just kept looking at her.

"Well, we weren't really dating."

"Really." He didn't sound surprised. Why didn't he sound surprised?

"We did date - I mean, we went on one date, but you know, it turned out we didn't really have anything to talk about."

"Huh." What did "huh" mean? And seriously, why didn't he sound more surprised?

"And, you know, I just, I didn't want everyone" (you) "to think I was the pathetic woman who threw a party just to get a guy and then only went on one date with him after all that effort." (Plus, at that party I realized I might be in love with you and I thought you might be in love with me but then you seemed so normal and I was trying to figure out why you didn't care that I was dating Cliff.)

He looked like he was buying it. Maybe.

"I see," he said. He looked at her intently for a second, then walked out.

I see? What the hell kind of response was that? And what was that look he had just her? Was he disappointed in her? Well, of course he was disappointed in her for lying to him for six weeks. She'd be furious if she found out he'd lied to her for six weeks. What kind of a friend did that? How could he? That jerk!

She rushed into his office.

Wait, no, never mind, she was the jerk who'd lied. Whoops.

Danny was still by the door when she walked in. "Min? Are you okay?"

"Why aren't you mad at me for lying to you about Cliff?"

They were practically face to face now. He smiled then, raising an eyebrow. "You want to know the truth?"

"Yeah."

"I clocked him in the elevator last weekend because I saw him kissing someone and I thought he was cheating on you."

"Danny!" She couldn't quite stop the smile that was creeping onto her face. She stared at the floor. "Is he okay? Why didn't you say something?"

"He's fine. I mean, maybe he's a little bit angry with me, but he'll be fine." He looked straight at her, probably trying to look her in the eye. "I wanted to see how long you'd keep up your stories."

"Oh." She kept staring at the floor. "Alright then, um, I, uh, need to go look at -" She walked into her office and closed the door.

So he knew. Well, that explained the smile this past week. Why he'd looked like he was about to laugh at her every time she mentioned Cliff. And why he'd looked so happy. Clearly, laughing at her was making him happy. That jerk! She turned to storm back into to his office.

And then she stopped. She didn't want to look at happy Danny again. She didn't want him to be miserable, exactly, but couldn't he have been at least a little sad back when he'd actually believed she was dating Cliff?

She hid in her office for the rest of the day.

* * *

She snuck in early (early!) the next morning.

Betsy brought some charts into her office around 9:30. "Are you okay, Dr. L.? You don't look so good."

"Yeah, Mindy, you look terrible," added Jeremy. Where had he come from? He reached up to feel her forehead.

She slapped his hand away. "Jeremy. Stop! Leave me alone. I'm fine. Totally fine."

"You know, Dr. L., if you need any special medication to make you feel better, just let me know, " Morgan said, leering at her a little.

"No, Morgan, Jeremy, Betsy, I'm fine. Go away. I need to work."

Danny stuck his head in the door and chimed in, "She said she's fine, leave her alone." Morgan, Jeremy, and Betsy filed out. Danny took one more look at her, then turned to leave.

"Min."

"Yeah?" She looked up. Almost at him, but she couldn't quite make her eyes go all the way up to his. They got stuck somewhere in the vicinity of his chin. He did have a nice chin, but yeah, what was he saying?

"Min?" he repeated

"Yeah." She still couldn't look him in the eyes. "When are you going to tell me the truth?"

"I told you -" she started to say. But then she made the mistake of finally looking at him. Whoa, that was a bad idea. She stared at her desk again.

"Okay," he said quietly, and walked out, closing her door - gently - behind him.

She put her head on her desk. She felt like she was going to cry. Maybe she should just lie down on the floor. But she sat there instead, staring blankly at her charts.

By lunchtime she was starving. She listened for Danny's door, and as soon as she was sure the coast was clear, snuck into the break-room to see what she could "borrow" from the fridge. Jeremy's yogurt? Ugh. Better than nothing.

Betsy stopped her on the way out. "Dr. L.," Betsy said sadly, "can you talk to Dr. C.? He yelled at me 5 times this morning and Tamra's been comforting Morgan for half an hour because Dr. C. told him he was a terrible nurse." Morgan looked up and gave Mindy a wink. Well, he didn't seem too miserable.

"Uh, okay."

But somehow she didn't make it into Danny's office. Instead, she hid, waiting for them all to leave. When the coast was finally clear, she ran out, ready to tackle the nearest vending machine. Wait. She skidded to a halt. Shit. Danny was sitting at his desk.

Sighing, she walked back to his door. "Danny, why are you being a jerk and shouting at Betsy and Morgan?"

He looked up at her. And she finally saw it. Or she thought she did. Wait, had she been drinking again? Nope, definitely no red wine-Castellano hallucinations. Something was going on with his (gorgeous) face. There was something that meant - something.

"Min, why'd you lie about Cliff?"

"What? I was talking about Betsy and Morgan." She looked at him. "I told you, I didn't want you to think I was pathetic because I threw a party for the guy and then . . ."

He stopped looking at her, and she could see his shoulders droop. Just slightly.

She stopped. "Danny, what do you want me to tell you?"

"The truth, Min."

"That is the - , I mean I did -" She stopped herself. Okay, maybe that wasn't exactly the truth. She walked towards his desk. Okay, too close. She took a few steps back. Closer to the door. So she could make a quick escape after she embarrassed herself.

He looked at her expectantly.

She took a deep breath. "After I saw you at the window that night I -" He was still looking right at her, and he didn't seem surprised or confused. Huh. Maybe she hadn't hallucinated him. "After I saw you at the window that night I just realized that it was dumb to pretend I didn't have feelings for you and the look on your face made me think you had feelings for me too, but then you didn't care at all when I told you I'd kissed Cliff and I was going on a date and it made be crazy because you weren't jealous so I made up hot tubs and the opera so you'd say something or do something!"

He looked at her. And smiled. "Really? You made up Cliff stories to make me jealous?" He smiled again. "Huh."

He was enjoying this. Jerk! She looked back at him. He was just sitting there. Looking at her. Looking happy. No, smug, actually. Definitely smug.

Okay, she'd had enough.

"Ummm, bye. See you, umm, never!"

She walked (who was she kidding, ran!) out the door and stabbed the elevator button. What was wrong with this dumb elevator? Didn't it realize that she needed to go hide in a deep dark hole for the rest of her life so that she wouldn't have to look at Danny's smug face ever again?

"Min," he said, pulling her arm away from the button and turning her round to face him. Well, not exactly face him. That wasn't happening. She stared at the floor. "Min," he repeated, still holding her arm. She stared at his feet. Nice shoes, Danny. Surprisingly nice. I mean, he had decent taste, sometimes, but still, this was a pleasant surprise. Wait, he was talking again, something about trying to be a good friend, not wanting to lose her friendship, even though he hated that she was dating Cliff, blah blah blah.

"Are you even listening to me?" He reached for her chin. She finally looked up. There was that something again. A good something, she decided. He stared at her, softly stroking her cheek with his thumb. Okay, she was going to have to do something to wipe that (wonderful) look off his face. She leaned forward and kissed him. And yeah, Danny (Danny!) was definitely kissing her back. Wow.

When she finally came up for air, he smiled shyly at her. "That was nice, Min."

"Nice, Danny?! Nice?!"


End file.
